The Lonely Neutron Star in Supernova Remnant E0102-72.3
Why is this neutron star off-center?
Recently a lone neutron star
has been found within the debris
left over from an old
supernova explosion.
The "lonely neutron star" in question is the
blue dot at the center of the red nebula near the bottom left of
E0102-72.3.
In the
featured image composite, blue represents X-ray light captured by NASA's
Chandra Observatory,
while red and green represent optical light captured by
ESO's
Very Large Telescope in
Chile and NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope in orbit.
The displaced position of this
neutron star
is unexpected since the dense star is thought to be the
core of the star that exploded in the supernova and created the
outer nebula.
It could be that the
neutron star in E0102 was pushed away from the nebula's center by the supernova itself, but then it seems odd that the smaller red ring remains centered on the
neutron star.
Alternatively, the
outer nebula
could have been expelled during a different scenario --
perhaps even involving
another star.
Future observations of
the nebulas and neutron star appear likely to resolve the situation.